Chapter 532: Spring Of Edirne
Edirne is in flames
The news of the Sultana’s submission towards the Rumelians spread fast in the gossips of the citizens. At first people thought that it is nothing but a plain rumour. But soon it became the painful reality giving every citizen of Edirne a hammer strike on their head, waking them up again from the former glories of the Sultanate that has been all lost in the past years.
Hundreds and thousands of young, robust Ottoman juniors stormed the streets tearing down buildings, tearing down walls and trying to storm the palace in protest. Strangely speaking when the recruiters came a month ago to enrol them into the Ottoman army in the name of defending the nation, they rejected the offer, being simply way too afraid to confront the Rumelians. But when it comes to damaging their own nation’s properties in showing their patriotism and courage, they are much more daring than what they are one month ago.
Because they know that the Ottoman army recruiters will not hurt them, but the Rumelians can literally chop their heads off.
The palace is still well protected by the five hundred guards, but the law enforcement system of Edirne is far from enough of protecting the whole city and suppressing this riot. Multiple courtiers have been pleading the Sultana dowager to open the gates and allow the army into the city in order to prevent their properties from being torn down by these violent protesters. But the Sultana Dowager is still reluctant to these suggestions, for one simple reason. The only thing keeping her power intact is her son, and the walls stopping the army from coming in.
Now, if she gave the Ottoman army the legitimate right to come into the city, will they proceed on to push her out of power and take the throne by themselves? There is indeed a possibility that this kind of thing might happen.
But when the rioters started smashing and destroying the properties and valuables of these courtiers, they finally could not bear it any longer, and started urging, even threatening the Sultana Dowager to some extent that if she is still hesitant in doing something to protect their properties, they would not hesitate to stop supporting her and switch to support someone else. These courtiers form the backbone of the Sultana Dowager’s rule, and she knows it would be disastrous for her if they are to switch side. Thus, she had no choice but to concede, writing a letter allowing the frontline troops to storm the city, and at the same time asking Hamza Pasha to control his troops from causing a second round of damage to the capital city.
However, the Sultana Dowager still feels that all of these procedures are still far from enough from securing her safety. The frantic plan that was in her head previously started evolving in her head once again.
There is obviously a reason for her decision to pay tribute to the Rumelians, an important factor is that she wants to clean up the state, solidify her power first before reaching her hands out of the state, and in order to achieve this she needs to grab hold of the support of the military, definitely. She knows that there shall be some chaos and so she chose to appease the Rumelians first through diplomatic and monetary means, choosing the time when most of the Rumelian regular forces are stuck in Epirus to start her plans.
However, there is one thing she did not expect, that is the citizens of Edirne. She had never expected the citizens of Edirne to have such a reaction towards this matter, because deep in her mind, this country belongs to them, not these random tom dick and harry running around on the streets everyday bargaining over the price of lamb chop. She does not understand that why do these peasants have such a great issue with her meddling with her own properties.
The ruling class of the Ottomans have been separated from the people of the state for way too long already, unlike the days of the former Sultans Osman and Orhan, the Sultana Dowager can hardly say that she has ever communicated with a man who is not a noble before. She failed to realise that there is a raising sentiment within the population that promotes patriotism, although this kind of sentiment still does not have its own name in the era yet, but one day it shall create chaos like today, and even create wars in the scale that no one has ever seen before.
The army stepped into the situation, and the riot is quickly suppressed under the threat of shields and blades, with tens of people killed, hundreds of people arrested and a whole street burnt, but now at least, the monarchs are safe.
Now there leaves one question for the Sultana Dowager; How to deal with the thousand plus Ottoman troops that are stationed inside the city.
They did not cause much trouble, of course, under the control of their highest leader Hamza Pasha, but the presence of these troops along is enough to give the Sultana Dowager nightmares, knowing that this city now is no longer fully controlled by her, she is now sharing the city with someone else. Just the thought of there are a thousand plus armed soldiers in the city that are in the city gives her dilemma attacks.
Just a day later, the Sultana Dowager started sending orders to the army ordering them to leave the city at once, but the army rejected after a whole day of ’consideration’, the second piece of order from the Sultana Dowager came almost immediately, this time in a much harsher tone commanding the troops to get the hell out of the city, but the commander of the troops simply replied that there are still many rebels and rogues hiding in the city, and in the consideration of the safety and wellbeing of the Sultan, they need to stay in the city for...
The Sultana Dowager torn the letter into half before even finishing it.
She turned to her son Beyezid, quiet as always sitting by her side, and hugged her son tightly with tears gushing out of her eyes. "O my Beyezid! O my Beyezid! Why, why are there always thieves who want to steal the country left by your father away? What have we done wrong, why do these armed bandits always want to throw us out of own city? Beyezid, when the time comes, you must protect me! You must!"
The young Beyezid made a slight sigh, and hugged his mother too, but no one can see the emotions in his pair of though. Is it filled with frustration? Or is there nothing but pity. Is it full of anger? Or is it nothing but calmness. Is it riddled with sadness? Or is it jammed with sorrow.
"Yes, my respected mother."
"We need to do something about this." The Sultana Dowager said biting her teeth hard. She looked at her own reflection in the mirror; Luckily that her charming and alluring look is still there on her face, despite the fact that she is already in her thirties. And on top of that with all the makeups done by the most luxurious materials from Palestine, all the jewellery made through the top Egyptian craftmanship in Sukari, it made her look even more noble than before. Though there is one thing, after all these years of pressure, political struggles and government work, it made her look much more fragile and languish than ten years ago when she had not many things to think about but to serve her husband and feed her son.
She even has a cluster of white hair forming up on top of her silken long hair.
Looking at this, the Sultana Dowager’s heart is filled to the brim by misery and hate, she looked back at her son’s black pupils again and continued in a tone full of hatred. "My son, we must do something about this situation, if not there shall be one day that they shall come for our head!"
"I will protect you, mother."
"Remember, Beyezid, our most threatening enemies always lies within our state by our sides, because they can be like venomous vipers sipping onto our beds when we expect them the least and take our lives when we are still soundly asleep! We must root out these threats by our sides before we deal with the outside world!"
"Yes, mother... So, what do you plan to do?"
This question of the young Sultan made the Sultana Dowager stagger in her own words. Yes, she has plans to remove the internal strife first, but what is she going to do? She does not have the capabilities of removing the army from the city, neither can she convince these people to follow her orders. So what exactly can she do to achieve her goals?"
